


Silky Touch

by surskitty



Series: Step Aside and See the World [16]
Category: Subarashiki Kono Sekai | The World Ends With You
Genre: Gen, Kittens, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-17
Updated: 2018-12-17
Packaged: 2019-09-21 07:25:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 921
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17039372
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/surskitty/pseuds/surskitty
Summary: Joshua knows sometimes people hold grudges.





	Silky Touch

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lostinreverie](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lostinreverie/gifts).



Joshua isn't hiding. Nor is he avoiding anyone, or nervous, or any of those other things that trouble lesser beings. It's their world, and he has plenty of mess to clean up after his month off. Even when things are back to normal, he's a very busy person.

His busy schedule never keeps him away from watching the kids, however. He put a lot of work into them, you know, and Neku's invitation is ... cute. Naive, pointless, likely to result in Joshua shooting him in the head again, but cute.

He keeps doing it, too, which is the silliest thing. Neku keeps inviting him, and Joshua keeps watching, and oh, what a wonderful world it would be if Joshua really could simply show up one day and everything would work out and they'd live happily ever after. Naive.

Sanae isn't going to like this, if Joshua does what he's thinking about doing. Sanae also has no ability to stop him, not when Joshua knows what he knows, and he flicks through the kids' heads for their meeting plans. Neku's been as loyal as Hachiko with as little reward, the yakitori of social interaction keeping him coming even as a dead man doesn't, but Joshua's still here, despite everything.

No one expects him to show, of course, and he knows they won't all be on the best terms. Still, there are ways to counteract that sort of thing, and they're the perfect lure for the Misaki girl to approach him first. She gasps as she grabs Neku's hood to drag him along, heedless of his confusion, because, "Kittens!"

Neku's interested no matter how much he'd like to pretend he isn't, and Joshua acts casual, herding the little furballs so they won't fall off Hachiko as he maintains a _gorgeous_ photo op, and Neku doesn't recognize him immediately. He imprints the slight suggestion to look at the kitten purveyor's face, and that's enough to do the trick.

Neku can process his emotions in his own time; what matters now is that Shiki wants to hold a kitten, and Joshua can certainly handle that. The Bitou siblings can hold them, too, heedless of Neku's little breakdown, and he has the perfect timing, really. Neku's had enough false starts at people he wanted to be Joshua that he barely knows what to do when he found him.

"You look familiar," Joshua tells him, and Neku's face is hilarious. "Did you think I forgot you?"

He knows very well Neku wondered. But Joshua has more responsibilities than what a teenage boy wants from him, and he's never been the type to come when called.

"Could have fooled me," Neku says, finding his voice, but he's pleased, and the kittens do exactly what they're supposed to. "Shiki, Beat, Rhyme, this is that guy I told you about," he says, more trusting than Joshua would be in the same circumstances, but the kittens have most of his attention and Joshua pets the mother cat, careful to seem unthreatening. He doubts Neku told them more than the basics, but Players always take things so _seriously;_ he needs whatever he can get.

That is, if these people's opinions matter to him, which he supposes they don't. They matter to _Neku,_ though, and he would have assumed all the bridges between him and Neku had burned already, but he's more flexible than Joshua thought. It would be a waste to test his patience to destruction. "Hi," he says, before discarding them from his notice in favor of cats, and he doubts even Sanae could have much criticism. _No one_ can ignore kittens for very long, and if Joshua's avoiding an awkward conversation, it's good practice for Neku to put in the social elbow grease.

"Do any of them have names?" Shiki asks him, amusingly bold for someone speaking to a _murderer,_ oh dearie me, and he pretends to think about it. It's not as though he was ever going to keep them; he found some strays after some searching, and he'll give them to Sanae to find homes for them if none of these delightful people take them.

"That one's Neku," he decides, pointing at an orange tabby behind the others, and the human Neku pretends like he's unimpressed. Joshua's no stranger to scanning, however, and he tries not to feel insulted the boy thinks the only reason Joshua would show himself _now_ is because he wants something. "It's sulking, but it's desperate for attention."

"Josh," Neku warns, but it's _true._ Why would someone want to see again someone they can't forgive? Why not take the hint that Joshua wasn't coming?

He's wondered, but he still doesn't understand. He knows what resonates with people, but their worlds remain their own.

Neku doesn't need to know that, however. "Mr H'll be happy to hear you learned my name," he says instead, amused, and he holds the slight smirk long enough for the hit to land. Guilt at his own behavior in their week together, fresh anger at Joshua's betrayal, confusion that the composer and CAT are on good terms, and then -- relief. He supposes Sanae must have been even less available for Realground teenagers than Joshua, if Neku's so glad to hear that he might be okay, and perhaps he ought to keep better track of what his producer is up to.

It hasn't bit him in the ass too badly just yet.

"Just ... thanks for coming," Neku decides, and they'll figure this out somehow.

He can always hand people more kittens.


End file.
